Europe
EUREKA E-Contec Umbrella and Cap Digital
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Cap Digital has been appointed the official French representative for the EUREKA E-CONTEC umbrella for
digital technologies and services. Coordinated by Belgium,
E-CONTEC is one of several key EUREKA « umbrellas » aimed at highlighting and leveraging EUREKA projects within a specific technology domain.
EUREKA, initially a franco-german brainchild which has grown to 34 member countries today, is a European-wide research & funding program targeted at reinforcing European competitiveness by supporting innovative industry-driven projects. It serves as an important EU-wide complement to the efforts of France’s competitiveness clusters.
In 2002, the European Council in Barcelone, had fixed an EU objective to grow total research spending to as much as 3% of the region's GDP by 2010. Two-thirds are to be funded by the private sector with the remaining one-third from EU states. In line with this, funding of EUREKA projects are broken down to 30% from the EU and 70% from private investors and the industry. This means that for every euro invested by the EU government, it attracts double the investment from the industry. This has attracted even non-EU member states such as Russia, Israel and Switzerland to participate in EUREKA.
EUREKA works because it has a sound “bottom-up” approach whereby industry-driven projects are the initiatives of the industrial stakeholders themselves and not the government. This has helped to keep the program decentralized, flexible and easy to manage.
7th IST Research Framework Program
"Building the ERA of Knowledge for Growth"
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FP7, the EU's chief instrument for funding scientific research and technological development over the period 2007 to 2013, is one of the most important elements in achieving the Lisbon agenda for growth and competitiveness. The Commission's proposals for the Seventh Framework Programme, published 6 April 2005, will now go through the co-decision procedure for approval and adoption by the European Parliament and Council.
At an estimated total budget of €73 billion (almost €10 billion a year), the FP7 proposal provides new impetus to increase Europe's growth and competitiveness, recognising that knowledge is Europe's greatest resource. The programme places greater emphasis than in the past on research that is relevant to the needs of European industry, to help it compete internationally, and develop its role as a world leader in certain sectors. The programme will for the first time provide support for the best in European research, with the creation of a European Research Council. Focus will be on excellence throughout the programme, requiring that it play a role in developing Europe's global competitiveness. Another priority will be to make participation in the programme simpler and easier, through measures addressing the procedures, plus a rationalisation of instruments.
Download for more information on FP7:
Communication from the Commission
EU Memo
Proposal for Council Decision
